Editing Guanxi (section)

===In a personal context===
''Guanxi'' also refers to the benefits gained from social connections and usually extends from extended family, school friends, workmates and members of standard clubs or organizations. It is customary for Chinese people to cultivate an intricate web of ''guanxi'' relationships, which may expand in a huge number of directions, and includes lifelong relationships. Staying in contact with members of your network is not necessary to bind reciprocal obligations. Reciprocal favors are the key factor to maintaining one's ''guanxi'' web. At the same time failure to reciprocate is considered an unforgivable offense (that is, the more one asks of someone, the more one owes them). ''Guanxi'' can perpetuate a never-ending cycle of favors.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ostrowski|first=Pierre|title=It's all Chinese to Me: an overview of culture & etiquette in China|year=2009|publisher=Tuttle|isbn=978-0-8048-4079-8|pages=48–49|author2=Gwen Penner}}</ref>

The term is not generally used to describe interpersonal relationships within a family, although ''guanxi'' obligations can sometimes be described in terms of an extended family. Essentially, familial relations are the core of one's interpersonal relations, while the various non-familial interpersonal relations are modifications or extensions of familial relations.<ref name=":0" /> Chinese culture's emphasis on familial relations informs ''guanxi'' as well, making it such that both familial relations and non-familial interpersonal relations are grounded by similar behavioral norms.<ref name=":2">Hsuing, Bingyuan. “Guanxi: Personal connections in Chinese society.” ''Journal of Bioeconomics'' 15.1 (2013): 17–40. Print.</ref> An individual may view and interact with other individuals in a way that is similar to their viewing of and interactions with family members; through ''guanxi'', a relationship between two friends can be likened by each friend to being a pseudo elder sibling–younger sibling relationship, with each friend acting accordingly based on that relationship (the friend who sees himself as the "younger sibling" will show more deference to the friend who is the "older sibling"). ''Guanxi'' is also based on concepts like loyalty, dedication, reciprocity, and trust, which help to develop non-familial interpersonal relations, while mirroring the concept of [[filial piety]], which is used to ground familial relations.

Ultimately, the relationships formed by ''guanxi'' are personal and not transferable.<ref name=":0">{{Citation
  | last = Fan
  | first = Y
  | title = Questioning Guanxi: Definition, classification and implications
  | newspaper = International Business Review
  | date = December 11, 2007}}
</ref>